Last updated at 15:09, Friday, 17 July 2009

Nick Martin at the Old England Restaurant in Bowness.

EVERYONE can cook, they just don’t know it, executive chef at the Old English Hotel, Nick Martin, says, before showing us around his kitchen in the hub of Bowness.

A generous statement from the boss of a kitchen in a hotel with two rosettes.

But as the 44-year-old continues to talk you hear a very level headed and down to earth person talking.

So it comes as no surprise to hear him say that his idea of really good food is not chefs producing complicated dishes with masses of ingredients.

Nick focuses on using a few top quality ingredients and making the most of them.

He is also a firm believer in taking care of food sources and a big advocate of using sustainable fish.

The 44-year-old says: “There is over- fishing because they net everything up and take it all, they catch small fish that have not had a chance to grow or reproduce.

“The big fish are the ones we want – you can get special nets which have holes to let the smaller ones out.

“Things like cod and haddock, try and give them a bit of a break so they can replenish. We need to try and educate people to the lesser species like coley and pollock.

“Gurnard is uglier than a monk fish, but it is beautiful eating.

“We can go down the road of the normal everyday fisherman or use the sustainable fish and take the pressure off one species and put it on another – but it will work out in the end.”

The ocean is a big place, he says.

Nick points out that some countries catch shark and just cut their fins off and throw them back into the sea to die.

But food and what people eat keeps changing all the time.

He carries on: “When I first started off in the late seventies, it was very much French classics, heavy sauces and heavy garnishes. Vegetarian dishes were few and far between, frowned on almost.

“But through to the eighties and we went, dare I say, to nouvelle cuisine, it was an era – we soon grew out of it.

“The trends of the late 80s and 90s with the Michelin star, great, but now we are going back to basics. Simple dishes, health conscious and not over dramatised – there are not 10 to 12 different elements in one dish.

“Now we count them on one hand, one is your starch, potato, rice or polenta, second the main ingredient whether it is your fish or your meat, third and fourth is generally your vegetable and the fifth is either a light sauce or dressing.”

To make Nick’s Sauteed Fillets of Coley with Crushed New Potatoes, Greens and Carrot and Butternut Puree for two:

Ingredients

l 2 x 8oz fillets of scaled and boned coley

l 8 cooked new potatoes

l A handful of greens, spinach or bok choi will be ok

l 2 large carrots

l Equal amount of buttternut squash

l 1 clove of garlic

Method

l First place the carrots, buttternut and garlic into a pan and barely cover with cold water. Bring to a fast simmer and cook until the carrots are soft. Drain well, then liquidise to a smooth puree and add a splash of water if it isn’t pureed enough. Season well and keep warm

l Place the new potatoes into a pan with a knob of butter, season well and crush with a soupspoon while warming

l Place a non-stick pan on to a medium heat and add a splash of oil. Season the fish well and carefully place it in the hot pan, Let it sizzle away for three minutes and add a knob of butter, turn over the fish and let it cook for three more minutes

l Remove from the pan and keep it warm, place the greens into the pan and wilt them down over a low heat,drain them well to serve

l To serve, spoon the potatoes into a metal ring or just neatly onto the plate, Sit the greens on top, add the fish on top of the greens, Place a spoon of the puree to the plate and drag the spoon through it to create a swoosh of puree (it looks really funky). Serve with chilled white wine

First published at 11:36, Friday, 17 July 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk